Melbourne's Jewish sex abuse scandal - what happened next

Manny Waks knows all too well the backlash the coming week will bring, but he is ready.

Since Waks first went public in 2011 with personal accusations of repeated sexual abuse and cover up from his time as a young boy at Yeshivah College, he has become all too familiar with the pattern of fallout.

In pursuit of justice: Zephaniah and Manny Waks are central to the documentary Compass: Code of Silence.

In the three years since his bombshell, as other survivors came forward, as government inquiries listened to the list of crimes, as abusers were exposed and jailed, Waks continued to face a fate known well to whistleblowers.

First came shunning from some segments of the ultra-orthodox Chabad community in which he was raised. Then the bullying and outright ostracism of his parents, Zephaniah and Chaya, who uprooted their lives and moved to Israel to escape harassment and isolation. And finally the no-less-painful suggestions that Waks, 38, simply “move on” and leave his pain behind.

This is the veil of secrecy and retribution portrayed in an hour-long documentary about his struggles, Code of Silence, which will air on a special episode of the ABC’s Compass on Tuesday night – in addition to a public screening of the film at the Classic Cinema in Elsternwick. It is certain to engender further backlash from the insular inner-eastern community.

“Thankfully I’ve broadened my shoulders and grown a lot of thick skin, but it’s not been easy,” Waks said. “It’s been three years of major struggles. A lot of reward and satisfaction and pride, but truly immense struggle.”

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Waks has been disappointed by the response of some friends and even family over his public campaign to bring Yeshivah leaders to account for their inaction, but he has also been buoyed by the work he now performs in the pokey Glenferrie Road offices of Tzedek, the support and advocacy group he established for Jewish survivors of child sexual abuse.

“I’ve had very little to gain personally from this process,” he said. “It’s really about justice and cultural change, so that we can prevent or minimise the tribulations of future victims, and create a climate for a proper response to these cases.”

Hearing their stories over these past three years, Waks keenly remembers the three years of sustained abuse he faced at the hands of more than one “sadistic paedophile”, starting when he was 11 – and the disempowerment and disillusionment that came with the lack of response from community leaders.

“I have had some tumultuous periods in my life. The abuse. Questioning my faith. Even my time in the Israeli military. The fundament difference – now at least – is I feel like I’m controlling my destiny. I feel empowered.”

He has hopes moving forward, too, of a greater investigation into a problem he believes is endemic.

“There needs to be a Royal Commission type entity established in Israel, to examine what has been going on in the Jewish community globally in the context of child sexual abuse. We cannot have a situation where allegations are brought and a perpetrator is excused because ‘He had a soft moment, a weak moment.’ This has to end.”